Trinity Episcopal Church
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Proper 23, October 15, 2006
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Job 23:1-9, 16-17
Psalm 22:1-15
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31
Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”(Mark 10:17-31)
What does it mean?
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop
A few days ago a crisis befell me. Due to the several week interval between packing and unpacking my office things, the batteries in my Palm Pilot™ became drained. Palm Pilot™ is a brand name for a type of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) that many of us rely on. These handy little devices can hold all kinds of information including addresses and phone numbers of friends and business associates, documents of a variety of types, and entire books, like the Book of Common Prayer, Lesser Feast and Fasts, and the Holy Bible. The also have a calendar feature that can send out an audible reminder of upcoming appointments.
My crisis was that in order to protect the memory – that is, all those addresses, documents, Bible texts, and such – the PDA shut itself down, preventing me from accessing anything! Oh, it’s not like I didn’t have warning. As these high tech devices take care of me – they also take care of themselves. My Palm warned me that the battery needed charging. For several days it said, “Warning – Battery Getting Low. Recharge Soon.” I kept telling myself to look for the power cable among the hundreds of boxes in my home and office here at church, but somehow that never got done. The warning got more dire over time, until finally it said, Battery Extremely Low. Powering Off.” Oh, oh. That was it. A huge chunk of my external long term memory was locked away.
While my Palm was losing energy and I was spending energy complaining to Linda and the others in the office about not finding my power cable, a few people suggested that I actually write things down on a calendar! Wow – now there’s a concept: the written word.
At about the same time I was getting this advice, I happened to hear of a new personal information device that is sweeping the country.[1] Sales of this device have doubled in the previous year to more than two million. I was attracted to this because it is a device that will never need to be upgraded. It will not break if dropped, and it will not short out if it gets wet (although my Palm has survived a couple of bathroom dunkings without incident). It has a large storage capacity that if exceeded can be easily resolved by purchasing another device for about $15. It fits in your pocket too. Best of all, it requires no power source.
The device is called “Moleskine” - pronounced “Mole-skeen” or “Mole-Skin-ee, or “Mole-SKEEN-a.” The Moleskine is not electronic. It is an old-fashioned notebook. It is not just any notebook, but rather one styled in the look and pattern of the “legendary notebooks of Van Gogh, Matisse, and Hemingway” according to Modo and Modo, the Italian company that makes them.[2] “Originally produced by small French bookbinders who supplied it to Parisian stationery shops, it became unavailable a few years ago. In 1986, the last manufacturer of Moleskine, a family operation in Tours, [ceased operation]. In 1998, a small Milanese publisher brought Moleskine back.”[2] The company claims that “Moleskine is a reservoir of ideas and feelings, a battery that stores discoveries and perceptions, and whose energy can be tapped over time.”[2]
Sounds pretty lofty, but really, in this age of e-mail, text messaging and instant messaging, the art of hand writing a letter is all but lost. The art of punctuation and artfully written phrases that capture emotions and feelings has been replaced with emoticons – those little smiley faces that punctuate modern electronic missives ;-) But a handwritten letter – even if written by someone with poor handwriting – shows a personal commitment of time and energy to the task. It means more somehow that they carefully thought and wrote out the words rather than let spell checker and grammar checker correct things. Hand written words mark a particular place in time and space, which is why they are saved in scented boxes in dresser drawers for years and years.
A few years ago I visited the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. Among the items I remember most were the handwritten notes by the President and Lady Bird. The stroke of the pen made the words themselves come alive. Somehow the letters formed by lighter and heavier strokes of the pen transmitted something of the energy and passion behind the words themselves.
Moleskine may be a fad, another thing in a long line of retro chic, but its popularity does say something about the need for humans to create and record in their own hand. Perhaps it is something that appeals to the very basic need humans have to tell stories – to put their lives into perspective of the larger human narrative of culture and society.
When we look at our Bibles, we are probably tempted to see or value the typed words like the words of any other book. While Gutenberg did all of us a favor by inventing the printing press in the 1450s which allowed the Bible to get into the hands of people all over Europe (and the regular clergy for that matter!), the printed book also led to the Bible becoming taken for granted. While the Bible is still the best selling book worldwide, it may also be the least-read one – sitting on bookshelves and bedside tables while novels by Grisham and the like are read to tatters.
It is easy to forget that from the epic stories of Genesis and Exodus to the convoluted arguments of Paul, each book, letter, poem, psalm, and proverb had to be carefully written by hand and that each carries the personal stamp of a writer (or group) who brings into the writing his own interpretations, feelings, and questions for others to experience for themselves. Most of the Bible was actually meant to be read out loud, having originally come from oral traditions. I know for myself, I can read the texts several times and gain one impression, only to gain a whole different perspective when it is read out loud by me or someone else.
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews – who was certainly not the Apostle Paul – says that the word of God is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” In other words, the texts we hold dear have the same deep influence on us that words from loved ones have on us. Our parents or our spouses or even our children, can open our hearts and minds and bless us, and make us feel connected and whole. And, on the flip side, they can admonish or reprimand us in deeply penetrating ways. That is probably what makes the written words of the Bible into something we call “Scripture.” Scripture speaks to us in ways other forms of literature do not.
Scripture is living and active. It is living because is speaks to something higher or greater than life itself. It is not a dead document written centuries ago, but is a document that reflects something so very important that it has meaning in today’s world. Perhaps not the same meaning that it had when it was written, but nonetheless something with enduring value. And because it is living and has meaning, it is active. It is energetic, and it can propel us to act upon it. If you doubt this, just look at how the words of scripture have energized people on both sides of the debate about homosexuality in the church.
A few years ago the preacher Andrew Rollins wrote,
“Karl Barth one of the great theologians of the 20th century, had a phrase about the Word of God in the scriptures. He said the Word of God is not ‘one thing in the midst of other things.’ The Word is not ‘one thing in the midst of other things.’ It's not just one more word that stands shoulder to shoulder with the Book of Common Prayer, Kahil Gibran, John Stott, William Shakespeare, George Bush, your mother or whatever other word you give ear to. The Word of God comes from completely outside of us. It's not ‘one thing in the midst of other things.’ It comes from outside of all of us, and has the power to pierce . . . and to judge.”
In today’s Gospel, we heard the familiar story of a man who asked Jesus how he could inherit eternal life. Jesus responded by quoting to him from the second book of the Torah. “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.” Perplexed, the man looked at Jesus and said, “Yeah, so? I read the scriptures, and have done all this. Are you telling me that’s all there is to it?” To which Jesus said, “Not quite. Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” The man couldn’t believe it. “Oh God, I can’t do that. I have worked too hard to give this up.”
Maybe he later began to think, “I really don’t have to give this up, because I have, after all, followed the laws of Moses as written in the scriptures.” And while it was probably true he had not directly stolen anything from anyone, or probably hadn’t taken anyone’s life with his own hands, or possibly hadn’t defrauded anyone, he could not see that his focus on himself and keeping his fortune and place in society may have indirectly caused harm or loss to others.
But in fact, what Jesus was simply pointing out was the deeper meaning of the words. Those words are simple directives – easy to follow – but to just live into those simple directives ignores the deeper more difficult message. How do specific activities or ways of thinking – in this case the man’s attitude toward his possessions – slowly move us from loving God and neighbor?
The World Bank estimates that today, one fifth of human beings live under the international poverty line.[3] While this percentage is better than it has probably ever been in history, the fact remains that the economic inequality between the richest and poorest with a given country has never been so large.[4]
The man didn’t mean to cause others harm. He was just spending his wealth on the things he wanted and could afford. What he didn’t realize that was his spending practices and his desire to have more things were in fact contributing to other people’s poverty. To be sure, he didn’t own a sweatshop – for if he had I’m sure Jesus would have said something about it. But his obsession with things blinded him to the plight of the poor, and his possible culpability.
Jesus saw the scripture as alive; full of meaning; words that spoke to the present. Moses’ laws were not quaint axioms upon which an ancient civilization established itself, but rather ideas that spoke to the timeless concepts of human dignity, fairness, and justice.
So how does scripture speak to you? Is it alive, like the written words of a loved one hand-penned to you? Or is it something else? What is its value? Is it something to be slavishly followed, or something to be listened to and interpreted?
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Then Job answered: “Today also my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me. There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge. “If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm, and not human;
scorned by others, and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock at me;
they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
8 “Commit your cause to the LORD; let him deliver --
let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”
9 Yet it was you who took me from the womb;
you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
10 On you I was cast from my birth,
and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls encircle me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
15 my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account. Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
[1] This sermon was inspired by this article, and borrows from it: Timothy F. Merrill. “From PDA to PAD.” Homiletics18(5):52-56, 2006.
[2] http://www.modoemodo.com.
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweatshop
[4] The income gap between the fifth of the world’s people living in the richest countries and the fifth in the poorest has been steadily climbing. In 1820 it was 3 to 1; 1870, 7 to 1; 1913, 11 to 1; 1960, 30 to 1; 1990, 60 to 1; and in 1997, 74 to 1.
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Copyright © 2006, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
12 October 2006
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